One writer, unimpressed by the cucumber growers begging for cheap labor writes

You know where those poor farmers can shove those cucumbers don't ya?

This always comes up when cucumbers are mentioned—the answer is "The same place the Senate can shove S. 1348." Actually, if they can't—the cucumbers are supposed to be rotting in the fields for lack of anyone to bend over and pull them out. But it's the thought that counts.

Liz Smith writes from New York

Of course, this is beyond ridiculous.

VDARE has done a great job of discussing the need for mechanization, but let's not forget that in times of crisis Americans can be very resourceful with human power.

The cucumber story made me think of the Women's Land Army that brought the harvests in during WWI in Britain and WWII in the U.S. As a Long Islander, I remember when school kids had a "spud break" during the fall season to help with the potato harvest. This was done in Maine as well.

My family would be the first in line to help a FAMILY farmer with his crops. Screw the corporate growers.

Another writer, on the subject of apples:

I am familiar with the price of apples on the retail side of the market. The price of the apples in the stores is not dependant on how much it is to grow as it is how much the consumer is willing to pay for the apple. The price of an apple is $1.20 for one you would put
in your lunch pail. But the cost of the apple is only $0.14 to produce and pick and sort.

The price in the store is almost completely independant of how much cost went into the production of the apple but is entirely dependant on how much the consumer is
willing to pay. If the cost to produce the apple went to say $0.27 the consumer will still pay $1.20 since this is the price point where the maximum dollars are made by the farmer. If the apple cost only $0.09 to produce the farmer will still charge $1.20 since this is
what the consumer is willing to pay, what the consumer deems the intrinsic value of the apple.

The farmers well know the above economics lesson but they also know that if they can get really cheap labor the cost savings is all theirs.